Isaiah 3:7

In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-9 God was about to deprive Judah of every stay and support. The city and the land were to be made desolate, because their words and works had been rebellious against the Lord; even at his holy temple. If men do not stay themselves upon God, he will soon remove all other supports, and then they must sink. Christ is the Bread of life and the Water of life; if he be our Stay, we shall find that is a good part not to be taken away, Joh 6:27. Here note, 1. That the condition of sinners is exceedingly woful. 2. It is the soul that is damaged by sin. 3. Whatever evil befals sinners, be sure that they bring it on themselves.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In that day shall he swear - Hebrew, ישׁא yı̂shā' 'Shall he lift up' - that is, the voice, or the hand. To lift up the hand was one of the modes of taking an oath. Perhaps it means only that he should lift up "the voice" - that is, "should answer;" compare Numbers 14:1. The Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee, read it simply 'he shall answer.'

I will not be an healer - Hebrew, 'a binder up,' Isaiah 1:6. The Vulgate renders it, 'I am not a physician.' The Septuagint and the Chaldee, 'I am not sufficient to be a leader.' The meaning is, that the state of affairs was so ruinous and calamitous that he would not attempt to restore them; as if, in the body, disease should have so far progressed that he would not undertake to restore the person, and have him "die" under his hands, so as to expose himself to the reproach of being an unsuccessfill and unskillful physician.

Is neither bread nor clothing - I am not rich. I have not the means of providing for the needs of the people, or to maintain the rank of a ruler. 'It is customary,' says Sir John Chardin, 'to gather together an immense quantity of clothes, for their fashions never alter.' 'The kings of Persia have great wardrobes, where they have always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for presents, and sorted.' - "Lowth." The description here is one of very great calamity and anarchy. So great would be the ruin and danger, that men would be unwilling to be chosen to the office of princes and rulers, and none could be found who would desire to possess the highest honors of the nation. Generally men "aspire" to office; here they were unwilling, on account of the disordered and ruined state of affairs, even to accept of it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. swear—literally, "lift up," namely, his hand; the gesture used in solemn attestation. Or, his voice, that is, answer; so Vulgate.

healer—of the body politic, incurably diseased (Isa 1:6).

neither … clothing—so as to relieve the people and maintain a ruler's dignity. A nation's state must be bad indeed, when none among men, naturally ambitious, is willing to accept office.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He shall swear, Heb. he shall lift up; understand either,

1. His voice; he shall cry aloud, to show his earnestness in refusing the offer; or,

2. His hand, which was the usual gesture in swearing, Genesis 14:22 Deu 32:40, &c., to show his resolvedness.

An healer; a repairer of the ruins of the state.

In my house is neither bread nor clothing; I have not sufficient provisions, either of food or raiment, for my own family; much less, as you falsely suppose, for the discharge of so high a trust.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In that day shall he swear,.... Or "lift up", that is, his hand (e), which was a gesture used in swearing, and therefore is so rendered; the meaning is, that he shall at once immediately give an answer, and for the solemn confirmation of it shall say an oath with it, saying,

I will not be a healer, or "a binder"; that is, of wounds, of political wounds, made in the nation, and which were incurable. See Isaiah 1:6 for the meaning is, that he neither was fit to be, nor could he be, a healer of the distempered state of the nation, it was so desperately bad. The Targum is,

"I am not fit to be a head or governor;''

and so Kimchi explains it of a governor, who, he says, is so called, because he binds and imprisons those that transgress his commands; and to this sense Jarchi and Abarbinel:

for in my house is neither bread nor clothing; not a sufficiency of either to support such grandeur and dignity; not enough to keep a proper table, and a suitable equipage:

make me not a ruler of the people; this shows that the state of the nation must be very bad indeed, that men, who are naturally ambitious of power and honour, should refuse government when offered to them.

(e) "attollet manum", Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

In that day shall he {g} swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.

(g) Fear will cause him to forswear himself, rather than to take such a dangerous charge upon himself.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. swear] better, protest, lit. “lift up (sc. his voice).”

healer] lit. “binder-up” (of the wounds of the state), see Isaiah 1:6in my house … clothing] “I am as poor as any of you.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - In that day shall he swear; or, lift up his voice - speaking with emotion (Kay). I will not be an healer; literally, a binder-up (comp. Isaiah 1:6); "I will not undertake to heal the calamities of the state." In my house is neither bread nor clothing; i.e. "I am not a wealthy man; I have no stores laid up; I am quite unfit to be the people's ruler." Make me not; or, ye shall not make me. The decently clad man entirely declines to be advanced to the helm of the state. Isaiah 3:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

At length there would be no authorities left; even the desire to rule would die out: for despotism is sure to be followed by mob-rule, and mob-rule by anarchy in the most literal sense. The distress would become so great, that whoever had a coat (cloak), so as to be able to clothe himself at all decently, would be asked to undertake the government. "When a man shall take hold of his brother in his father's house, Thou hast a coat, thou shalt be our ruler, and take this ruin under thy hand; he will cry out in that day, I do not want to be a surgeon; there is neither bread nor coat in my house: ye cannot make me the ruler of the people." "his father's house" - this is not an unmeaning trait in the picture of misery. The population would have become so thin and dispirited through hunger, that with a little energy it would be possible to decide within the narrow circle of a family who should be ruler, and to give effect to the decision. "In his father's house:" Beth âbiv is an acc. loci. The father's house is the place where brother meets with brother; and one breaks out with the urgent petition contained in the words, which follow without the introductory "saying" (cf., Isaiah 14:8, Isaiah 14:16, and Isaiah 22:16; Isaiah 33:14). לכה for לך with He otians, a form rarely met with (vid., Genesis 27:37). תּהיה, which would be written תּהי before the predicate, is jussive in meaning, though not in form. "This ruin:" macshelah is used in Zephaniah 1:3 for that which occasions a person's fall; here it signifies what has been overthrown; and as Câshal itself, which means not only to stumble, strip, or slide, but also to fall in consequence of some force applied from without, is not used in connection with falling buildings, it must be introduced here with an allusion to the prosopopeia which follows in Isaiah 3:8. The man who was distinguished above all others, or at any rate above many others, by the fact that he could still dress himself decently (even if it were only in a blouse), should be made supreme ruler or dictator (cf., kâtzin, Judges 11:6); and the state which lay so miserably in ruins should be under his hand, i.e., his direction, protection, and care (2 Kings 8:20; Genesis 41:35, cf., Isaiah 16:9, where the plural is used instead of the ordinary singular yâd.) The apodosis to the protasis introduced with Chi as a particle of time (when) commences in Isaiah 3:7. The answer given by the brother to the earnest petition is introduced with "he will raise (viz., his voice, Isaiah 24:14) in that day, saying." It is given in this circumstantial manner because it is a solemn protest. He does not want to be a Chobēsh, i.e., a binder, namely of the broken arms, and bones, and ribs of the ruined state (Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 1:6; Isaiah 61:1). The expression ehyeh implies that he does not like it, because he is conscious of his inability. He has not confidence enough in himself, and the assumption that he has a coat is a false cone: he not only has no coat at home (we must remember that the conversation is supposed to take place in his father's house), but he has not any bread; so that it is utterly impossible for a naked, starving man like him to do what is suggested ("in my house," ubebethi with a Vav of causal connection: Ges. 155, 1, c).